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Archaia superfan and blogger Tina, a.k.a. Red Dot Diva, caught up with artist David Marquez at New York Comic Con and has posted her interview with him online. Marquez, who has illustrated Archaia graphic novels Syndromeand Days Missing Vol. 2: Kestus, was asked by Tina, who lives in Singapore, what advice he could give to artists in Asia who aspire to work for the top comic book publishers. He replied,

The most obvious thing is constant practising and drawing. If they want to draw comics, they should practise comics art. And if they want to do concept art, draw concept art. A lot of artists are not sure what they really want to do and so when we look at their work, it could be a smattering of five or six different styles. They all look OK but none of them are really good. They should concentrate and focus on one of those styles, and then they can improve much faster.

Those are the suggestions one can do to improve one’s art. But talent does not guarantee work. And there’s a saying that I really like. ‘Talent, luck and persistence. But you don’t need all three. You just need two.’ There are a lot of artists working in comics who may not be the best out there, but they were lucky and they were persistent.

Part of that is putting yourself out there online. Especially for the artists in Asia, where a lot of publishing companies are currently in the USA. You’ll never know whose eyes you’ll catch. Online, geography doesn’t matter. A publisher in HK may see my art and loves it.